Welcome to the Squadra di Vecchi Tori Blog

We are a group of ordinary bike riders who live in or around the suburb of Malvern, Melbourne, Australia and ride under the name ‘Squadra di Vecchi Tori’ (Team of Old Bulls). Why the name? Because Molteni and Gewiss were already taken and a few of our riders are involved in the beef industry. The rest of us like being associated with signs of virility.

In March 2010, 16 of our crew each rode 527ks in 24 hours during the annual Murray to Moyne cycling event held in Victoria. We raised over $60,000 for 2 charities close to the hearts of 2 of our riders – Learning for Life and The Unicorn Foundation. Links below.

You can also find us at www.twitter.com/m2m500.

This blog will document some of our rides, contain tips, commentary, banter and a distraction for all.

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He has been one of our favorites for a long time but is it the end for Robbie McEwen?

Since his disastrous knee injury, the Little Bogan from the Gold Coast seems to have been fighting the good fight to get himself back. Or has he? With “fight” being the operative word.

We have been more than a little worried by a few of his tweets/comments which have indicated he was “happy” or “content” with a minor placing or top 10 finish in races.

He did nothing in the Giro and made noises about being ok with his finishes in a few of the sprint stages – none of which he won. Sounds like he is starting to mellow in his twilight years.

This is not the Way of the Little Bogan. We are much happier when he is angry with the world and especially his fellow bike riders. And he is undoubtedly a better rider when angry.

On cordial terms with Graeme Brown in this year’s Giro? Unacceptable.

Mates with Stuey O’Grady? No way.

And now the latest and the worst – last night Robbie tweeted a thanks to big Lance for donating a jersey that raised $13k for the Starlight Foundation. And Lance tweeted back that it was “great news”. While this is indeed great news for Starlight, we cannot see it as being great news for either Robbie or Lance’s cycling.

Matey matey talk between these two is a worry for fans of either fellow. For the record, I am not a fan of Lance II – he was much better before his first retirement when he was pathologically competitive and regarded as an a$$hole by all and sundry. Now he is trying to be a good guy. This might be good for cancer research fundraising, but it ain’t good for a nutbag alpha male like Lance – if he wants to win bike races.

For those of you who don’t remember, Robbie and Lance had a big dust up in the 2002 Tour, when Lance objected to some sh_t that Robbie pulled in the bunch. Robbie’s reply to Lance was “Shut your mouth, or I will fill it with my fist.”

This is what we want to see from Robbie.

And who can forget Robbie ripping into Rene Haselbacher after the Austrian caused yet another crash at a Tour finish. Rene is on the deck, seriously hurt, and Robbie gives him both barrels in front of French women and children. Vintage Bogan. Excerpt from a newspaper article at the time:

‘His teammate, Peter Wrolich, told how McEwen stood over Haselbacher and launched abuse, even though the Austrian had a broken nose, three cracked ribs and damage to his liver and kidneys. “When you’re lying on the road with broken bones and have abuse shouted at you, it’s beneath contempt,” Wrolich said.

‘McEwen doesn’t have any friends and certainly won’t make any if he continues like this.”

‘But McEwen was unrepentant and said the incident had been exaggerated. “It wasn’t that heated,” he said. “I just said to him: ‘This was your fault, you’ve done it again.’ And I walked off. That’s the end of the story.”‘

Once again, this is what we want from the Little Bogan. And here is a gem from Robbie on Rene:

“It was pretty dangerous. That Austrian [Haselbacher] wanted to dive into a hole that wasn’t there. Before that he also bumped Zabel’s wheel twice. Haselbacher is a wringer, a kamikaze. Everyone can go for their own chance, but that man is confused, mistakes his ambitions for his abilities. He will never win a mass sprint in the Tour. I am especially disappointed because I was in the middle of the perfect sprint: I was nicely on Petacchi’s wheel.’

And there goes Robbie, finishing with a nice humble assessment of his own chances.

Come back to us Robbie. Please. We see the best way forward is for you to start a public slanging match with Cavendish. He will bite back and it might get your mojo going. Just tell some newspaper guy that you think Cavendish is a flash in the pan and boom! You will be back.

We want more of this!

“I didn’t butt him. If you look at the video very closely you can see that my arm was trapped under O’Grady’s elbow. That twisted my body and pulled my head towards him.”

Don’t go quietly into the night Robbie. If not for your sake, do it for us.